CHAPTER III
THE BAY PATH

IN HARTFORD.--WINDSOR.--LONGMEADOW.--SPRINGFIELD AND WILBRAHAM.--MAPS SHOWING LOCATIO OF FOUR RECORDS

The following description of the route from Springfield to Hartford is a quotation from "The Colonial History of Hartford," by Rev. William DeLoss Love, Ph.D.

"At the upper end of Longmeadow where the shoulder of the hill is only a short distance from the river, was 'Longmeadow Gate.' Through this the path led southward. It was sometimes called 'Longmeadow Path." In 1682, the road to Freshwater River was laid out on the upland and the old road through the meadow was abandoned. The railroad now runs about where the old path or road was, north of Longmeadow station.

South of this road the railroad diverges to the west, and traces of the old road can be seen on the east. In 1664 the County Court appointed a committee to consider the layout of this old road as a highway. The record of their action specified their route as follows:

"From ye lower end of Springfield to long Meddow gate, running where it now doth, in breadth four rods, & from ye long Meddow gate to the bridge ye lower end of by the rivers bank shal be in breadth two rods, & from ye lower end of the Said Meddow into fresh water River, soe called, as the way now runs, ffour rodds, & from thence to Namerick, where John Bissell had a barn standing, as now ye way runs twenty rods, & from thence to Namerick brook, where will best suit for a bridge, two rodds, & from thence to ye dividing lyne betweene the Collonyes, wher ye horse way now lyes, two rodds." (Burt's "History of Springfield," I: 141.)

The latter part of this layout refers to the road within the present bounds of Connecticut. At Namerick Brook, the records and topography afford the best oportunity to locate the way, into which the Bay Path was soon developed by the early use of settlers' carts. It is most convenient to trace it northward from Windsor, for so the records run, and in that town the path was made a highway within six years of the time Thomas Hooker traveled it. An extant leaf of Windsor's original town votes has the following record, dated February 21, 1641 [-2]:

"Its ordered that the way betwixt Henry Styles & James Egglestons there homelotts downe to the greate riuer, shall be allow(ed) for a publicke highway for horse & droue (?) to Agawam & to the Bay, and from thence (southward) to the bridge & foe by the head of Plimouth meade downe to Harteford." (Windsor Town Votes, Ms. in collection of the Connecticut Historical Society.)

This road turned eastward from the present highway, about sixty rods north of the Ellsworth homestead. It was evidently laid out where the original path had been, leading down to John Bissell's "old ferry." On Woodward's and Saffery's map is the note: "Crossing Conecticott river at Windsor fery place, the house of John Bissell being on the west side and the Widow Gibbs hir house on the east side of the river." In 1662, Mathew Grant, after an examination of the town records, gave a rather minute description of this "country road" in the book of Town Ways of Windsor. The ferry landed on the east side between the land of Abraham Randall and Catharine Gibbs.

The further course of the road northward, nearly half a mile, to Namerick Brook is then given as follows:

"And then goeth up by the River to the uper side of that which was Elias Parkmans Land, and there turns away from the River, turning toward the upland and runs up as has been marked and sets out to where the way was ordered to go down the bank and pass over the brook, and so to pass a way through the uplands and over other brooks, and on till it is past the bounds of Windsor, and this was to be maintained for a country way."

Having this description of the old road, one can hardly miss it where it goes down the bank to cross the south fork of Namerick Brook. Here it has been preserved from the ravages of time. The road followed the river northward for some distance. Then it turned "toward the upland," in plain view, and traversed an elevated field. Here the owner once ploughed up evidences of an old building. We follow the course to the brow of the wooded ravine. There it goes "down the bank" from west to east, as no way from the meadow would have been made. It is evidently an old cart road. It passes a copious spring, flowing from a shaded nook in the hillside.

We may fitly call it "Pilgrims' Spring," after those who doubtless drank of its waters. Here would have been an ideal camping place. The road crosses the brook at a convenient place for a bridge. Then it climbs again to the upland, which it traverses, and goes down the slope to cross the north fork of the brook. Turning northward then, it passes, on a knoll, the site of John Osborn's early home. Thence it led along the upland hillside toward the northern bound of Windsor, cropping out here and there, two rods wide as in the record, and plainly visible where it goes through a woodland tract adjoining the river. This is without question the ancient country road that was used in 1662, and the records indicate that it was laid out where the older path had been to Agawam and the Bay.

The crossing of Namerick Brook could not be avoided. There it was necessary to turn eastward to escape the low land at the brook's mouth, often flooded now as then. The topography in connection with the description, therefore, does not admit of any wide range of possibility as to the location of the Bay Path which the pilgrims trod, where it goes "down the bank" to cross Namerick Brook.

Record No. 1 is near the United States Armory.--Here it seems desirable to quote from Dr. J. G. Holland, as follows: "It was wonderful what a powerful interest was attached to the Bay-Path. It was the channel through which laws were communication, through which flowed news from distant friends, and through which came long, loving letters and messages. It was the vaulted passage along which echoed the voices that called from across the ocean, and through which, like low-toned thunder, rolled the din of the great world. That rough thread of soil, chopped by the blades of a hundred streams, was a bond that radiated at each terminus into a thousand fibers of love and interest, and hope and memory.

"It was the one way left open through which the sweet tide of sympathy might flow. Every rod had been prayed over, by friends on the journey and friends at home. If every traveler had raised his Ebenezer, as the morning dawned upon his trust-sleep, the monuments would have risen and stood like mile-stones.

"But it was also associated with fears, and the imagination often clothed it with terrors of which experience and observation had furnished only sparsely scattered hints. The boy, as he heard the stories of the Path, went slowly to bed, and dreamed of lithe wildcats, squatted stealthily on over-hanging limbs, or the long leap through the air upon the doomed horseman, and the terrible death in the woods. Or, in the midnight camp, he heard through the low forest arches--crushed down by the weight of the darkness--the long-drawn howl of the hungry wolf.

"Or, sleeping in his tent or by his fire, he was awakened by the crackling sticks, and, lying breathless, heard a lonely bear, as he snuffed and grunted about his ears. Or, riding along blithely, and thinking of no danger, a band of straying Pequots arose, with swift arrows, to avenge the massacre of their kindred.

"The Bay Path was charmed ground--a precious passage--and during the spring, the summer, and the early autumn, hardly a settler at Agawam went out of doors, or changed his position in the fields, or looked up from his labor, or rested on his oars upon the bosom of the river, without turning his eyes to the point at which that Path opened form the brow of the wood hill upon the east, where now the bells of the huge arsenal tells hourly of the coming of a stranger along the path of time.

"And when some worn and weary man came in sight, upon his half-starved horse, or two or three pedestrians, bending beneath their packs, and swinging their sturdy staves, were seen approaching, the village was astir from one end to the other.

"Whoever the come might be, he was welcomed with a cordiality and universality that was not as much an evidence of hospitality, perhaps, as the wish to hear of the welfare of those who were loved, or to feel the kiss of one more wave from the great ocean of the world. And when one of the settlers started forth upon the journey to the Bay, with his burden of letters and messages, and his numberless commissions for petty purchases, the event was one well known to every individual, and the adventurer received the benefit of public prayers for the prosperity of his passage and the safety of his return.

"It was upon one of the sweetest mornings of May that Mary Pynchon and her brother John walked forth to enjoy the air, and refresh themselves with the beauty of the spring-touched scenery. Tom, the pet, was their companion, and as Mary heard the stroke of axes in the woods upon the hill, she deemed it safe to walk in that direction. Her steps naturally sought the Bay-Path. Not, perhaps because it led to the most charming view, or was the easiest of access. She could not tell why she chose it. Her feet, almost by force, took the path which her thoughts had traveled so long, and led her toward hopes that might, for aught she knew, be on the wings of realization to meet her, and lead her back to her home crowned with peace and garlanded with gladness.

"Arriving at the summit of the hill Mary and her brother selected a favorable spot, and sat down. Far to the north, Mount Holyoke and Mt. Tom stood with slightly lifted brows, waiting for their names. Before them on the west, the Connecticut, like a silver scarf, floated upon the bosom of the valley. Beyond it, the dark green hills climbed slowly and by soft gradations heavenward, until the sky joined their upturned lips in a kiss from which it has forgotten to awake. And all was green-fresh with new life, and bright with the dawn of the year's golden season.

"There, too, were the dwellings of the settlers, some of them surrounded by palisades, for protection against a possible foe, and all of them humble and homely. Near where they were sitting still swung the axes of the woodmen, and off, upon the meadow, on the western side of the river, the planters were cultivating their corn. The scene was one of loneliness, but it was one of deep beauty and perfect peace."

Record No. 2.--Five Mile Pond--The "great pond" in the order of the town of Springfield in 1646, allowing John Clarke and others with him, to get candle-wood out in the Bay Path on the plains beyond the "great pond and ye swamps that point out from it to Chickopee river and the Mill river; wch is judged about five miles from the town."

"Dec. 7, 1731 Commissioners to inquire as to necessity and conveniency of highways or county roads, Springfield to Brookfield and Hadley to Brookfield.

Report Mar. 7, 1731-2 roads be laid out."

A road was laid out from Brookfield to Hadley.

"And May the 3rd we laid out the highway from Brookfield to Springfield and we Determined it shall go as the Path now goeth In Brimfield Bounds to the River over to the Elbows or Kingstown, which Road from Brookfield bounds to said River is to be Ten Rods Wide, and as the Path goeth now to Scotts house to goe over the River against his house through the Elbows or Kingstown Six rods wide, and then when we got over the River to turn up the hill to the left hand and then to goe upon the Side hill along by a Small Swamp or Dingle to the head of it and thence turn to the Right hand and to goe over at the head of a Swamp at the North End of a Small meadow, and There up a Small hill to the old Path again, and the said highway from the said River till it comes into the Old Path again is to be Six Rods wide and to keep the Path as it now goeth along by Nine Mile Pond into Springfield or the house Lots upon the Easterly Side of said Town to be Eight Rods wide and after we come into Springfield Town Limit the said highway to be four Rods wide."¹

The date of this layout is May 3, 1732.

From the above we get the record No. 2 1/2 Nine-Mile Pond, and No. 3, the junction of the new County road with the Bay Path.

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